Thread: OT: OS/distribution recommendations
Hi list, This may be a little off topic, but I would certainly appreciate everyone's feedback. I want to start learning to use PostgreSQL, and I have an extra PC at home I wish to install PostgreSQL on for this very purpose. My question: what OS would people recommend? The PC is an old AMD-K2 running at 333MHz (I could be mistaken), and it has 256MB RAM, and a ~5 GB HDD. Currently, it has NT4.0 SP6 installed, but I would be willing to install an OS from scratch. I am looking for something that is (relatively) easy to install, and is a platform that it is (relatively) easy to install PostgrSQL on as well. I run the machine "headless," so there has to be a way to telnet or SSH in. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance! -- D. Spoon __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/
Hi ! I'd say you want a linux box ! Standard RedHat is a good start. BR, Aarni On Monday 03 November 2003 22:37, you wrote: > Hi list, > > This may be a little off topic, but I would certainly > appreciate everyone's feedback. I want to start > learning to use PostgreSQL, and I have an extra PC at > home I wish to install PostgreSQL on for this very > purpose. My question: what OS would people recommend? > The PC is an old AMD-K2 running at 333MHz (I could be > mistaken), and it has 256MB RAM, and a ~5 GB HDD. > > Currently, it has NT4.0 SP6 installed, but I would be > willing to install an OS from scratch. I am looking > for something that is (relatively) easy to install, > and is a platform that it is (relatively) easy to > install PostgrSQL on as well. I run the machine > "headless," so there has to be a way to telnet or SSH > in. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks in advance! -- Aarni Ruuhimäki Megative Tmi KYMI.com Pääsintie 26 45100 Kouvola FINLAND www.kymi.com / cfm.kymi.com aarni.ruuhimaki@kymi.com / info@kymi.com +358-5-3755 035 / +358-50-4910 037 ------------------------------------------------ Linux RedHat / KDE Open Source: Millions of open minds can't be wrong
> I want to start > learning to use PostgreSQL, and I have an extra PC at > home I wish to install PostgreSQL on for this very > purpose. My question: what OS would people recommend? > The PC is an old AMD-K2 running at 333MHz (I could be > mistaken), and it has 256MB RAM, and a ~5 GB HDD. If you're in the States, go Red Hat 9. If you're in Europe, SuSE. Those tend to be the most popular in their respective locales, assuming you're learning linux and PostgreSQL with a view towards employment in the near future. Side note, Red Hat allows you to download ISOs and free SuSE is an ftp install. I don't know if you have a fast net connection, but this also may play a role in choosing a distro. Whichever way you go, you won't be setting any land-speed records with your AMD, but you'll be using it as a learning server anyway so no worries. And yes, you can SSH into that server just fine. I run an old Dell at home headless the same way. Had to use a monitor in the install, but that's about it -- only two cables going into it now are power and ethernet. Welcome to the fold! -- Best, Al Hulaton | Sr. Account Engineer | Command Prompt, Inc. 503.222.2783 | ahulaton@commandprompt.com Home of Mammoth PostgreSQL and 'Practical PostgreSQL' Managed PostgreSQL, Linux services and consulting Read and Search O'Reilly's 'Practical PostgreSQL' at http://www.commandprompt.com
D. Spoon wrote: > and is a platform that it is (relatively) easy to > install PostgrSQL on as well. I run the machine > "headless," so there has to be a way to telnet or SSH > in. > > Any suggestions? The easiest is for sure Debian: Just type: apt-get install postgresql That's it. It will automatically check for dependencies and get everything needed to run postgresql automatically. The installation could be done by a chicken (Just pick enter). HTH -- e-Trolley Sayegh & John, Nabil Sayegh Tel.: 0700 etrolley /// 0700 38765539 Fax.: +49 69 8299381-8 PGP : http://www.e-trolley.de
Spoon, > Currently, it has NT4.0 SP6 installed, but I would be > willing to install an OS from scratch. I am looking > for something that is (relatively) easy to install, > and is a platform that it is (relatively) easy to > install PostgrSQL on as well. I run the machine > "headless," so there has to be a way to telnet or SSH > in. The two most popular OSes for PostgreSQL are Linux and BSD. There is some arguement about which is best for running the database, but you're interested in "easy to install", so that means Linux. SuSE Linux and Mandrake Linux both come with full-featured graphical installers. Additionaly, SuSE's admin tool, YAST, has begun winning awards for ease-of-use in recent versions. Red Hat Linux also comes with easy setup tools, but Red Hat has announced that they are discontinuing their "home" version after 9.0, so I don't think you want to go with Red Hat. Debian Linux certainly makes the install of PostgreSQL easy. However, I'm not sure that the install of Debian Linux is so easy. SuSE Linux gives you GUI setups for disk formatting, raid, LVM, and hardware configuration. I don't know how mush of this is automated on Debian. Regardless of which Linux distribution you use, you'll want to install software called "VNC" in addition to SSH. VNC allows you remote graphical access to the desktop on the linux server if you want to use KDE/Gnome widgets. VNC clients are available for Windows; I recommend TightVNC. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
--- Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote: > The two most popular OSes for PostgreSQL are Linux > and BSD. There is some > arguement about which is best for running the > database, but you're interested > in "easy to install", so that means Linux. > Thanks to Josh and all the others who replied. I have a friend who old me to go with Red Hat, but as mentioned, it looks like it's being discontinued. So I went with their "Fedora" distribution (Test 3, "Severn"). Even though it's beta, it was a snap to install. I had a little trouble getting PostgreSQL to run, but a quick go at Google solved everything in just a few minutes. One thing I have to say right off the bat regarding PostgreSQL -- there's *great* documentation available! I worked my way through the tutorial last night, and now it's on to reading the User Guide. Again, a sincere thanks to everyone that offered suggestions. I appreciate it. -- D. Spoon __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree